Although everyone is looking at it from the 'slang' connotation, I just wanted to point out the obvious - someone not knowing the word "gaijin" in Japan is like someone not knowing the word "foreigner" in America. So how many people do you know in America that don't know the word "foreigner"? I think that is the point trying to be made.

They might look that way by themselves, but if you were to compare them side-by-side to a caucasian, you can tell the base pigment is a different tone (i.e. yellow). If my girlfriend and I hold our arms side-by-side, it's really easy to see the difference.

The "white" and "brown" asians are just lighter and darker versions of the yellow pigment

Please excuse my generalizations. I'm not a sociologist or a linguist, so I don't claim any expertise.

A point was made in this thread that it's a custom in Japan to refer to people by something other than their name. This is a fundamental conceptualization process, not just a semantic quirk. Americans are the opposite. We prefer to be called by our names, and feel that categorization is somehow demeaning.

In Japan: Mr. Section Boss.
In America: Mr. Smith.

I don't suppose Mr. Shimoda would object to being called Shimodasan by his employees. He probably wouldn't object to being called kachou san, or kachou sama. But an American section boss would probably feel insulted if he were called Mr. Section Boss.

Languages evolve, but paradigms give way much more slowly. You have only to examine Japanese (so-called) pronouns in the most cursory way to realize that the application of names in Japan is a lot different that the way we do it in America.

Americans don't like to be labeled. We want to believe we live in a classless society. We are not reasonable about this--in that respect we aren't different from any other culture. We have good intentions, but can't seem to be consistent. We won't use the word nigger because it makes people uncomfortable. At the same time we still think that foreigners are just Americans who can't speak English.

We realize that some Japanese don't like white people. But we can't tell the difference between a good intention and a slur: gaijin. Outsider. No way to get around it. So, back to my original volley: The Japanese don't use pronouns the way we do. This is a fundamental conceptualization process, not a character flaw. I understand that most Japanese didn't even use family names until well into the declining years of the Tokugawa Era. They called themselves after their districts, villages, or occupations. This was not a measure of their worth as individuals, but an indicator of how they saw themselves fitting into their society.

Foreigners are destined to clash with this. We take things in the context we know:
Hey, White man.
Hey, Mr. Whiteman.
Hey, Foreigner.

The problems are manifold. These are labels that rankle us. We are trained to not think this way. The problem is that usually we don't realize that not all people share our paradigm. The problem is that our arrogance is that we want them to do things our way.

The problem is that even when we get it, that a Japanese is being polite, it still means outsider.

Last edited by mule98j on Tue 03.20.2007 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.